SOWING FLAX ON WINTERKILLED WHEAT FIELDS. 1 



By M. W. Evans, Scientific Assistant, Forage-Crop Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Wherever wheat is sown in the fall and the climatic conditions 

 during the winter are unfavorable, it is more or less subject to injury 

 by winterkilling. Great losses are sometimes sustained in the winter- 

 wheat areas of the United States from this cause. 



The farmers in the vicinity of New London, in northern Ohio, 

 have found a way to avoid much of this loss. AVhen the stand of 



Pig. 1. — A Hold of fall-sown wheat and spring-sown flax at New London, Ohio. 



wheat in the spring is very thin, flax is frequently sown on the field. 

 In the spring of 1912, when the wheat fields were in very bad condi- 

 tion as a result of winterkilling, a large proportion of the wheat 

 acreage in that locality was seeded with flax. 



In this vicinity a 5-year rotation, consisting of corn, oats, wheat, 

 timothy and clover, and timothy, is generally followed. Occasionallv 



[Clr, 114] 



1 Issued Feb. 22, 1913. 



